What kind of computer should I get?

I've been trying to shop for computers but my mind can't wrap around a lot of the specs of the computers I'm looking at.
I'm going to be using the computer for internet research for my podcast, Microsoft Office and not much more. I don't need anything so crazy as a quality gaming PC but I do... show more I've been trying to shop for computers but my mind can't wrap around a lot of the specs of the computers I'm looking at.

I'm going to be using the computer for internet research for my podcast, Microsoft Office and not much more. I don't need anything so crazy as a quality gaming PC but I do want something moderately fast and possibly some protective software to go with it.

A: should I get a laptop or a desktop? I'm not sure of the differences other than portability and I'm not planning on moving it.

B: Should I invest in protective software? I'm going to heavily surf the internet, however I'm going to do my best to stick to trusted sites.

Thanks in advance for all help!

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Best Answer: The main advantage a laptop has over a desktop is the portability. That's pretty much it. If you don't need the portability, then a desktop would most likely be better. As a matter of fact, desktop PCs are better to work on in case you ever want to upgrade it or fix it.

I'll give you a brief description of the major parts of a PC:

The CPU is the "brain" of the computer. It does the majority of processing that goes on in regular usage. There are 2 main brands: Intel and AMD. Both companies offer CPUs at different price points, capabilities, specs, etc

RAM is Random Access Memory. It holds your programs when you open them. Your programs are loaded from disk into RAM where they can be worked on. The more RAM your PC has, the more programs you can have open. Most typical computers have anywhere from 6-16 GB of RAM. For your use cases, I would go with at least 8. Having more RAM doesn't hurt, but if you're not going to be doing anything memory intensive, it doesn't really make sense to have too much.

Storage. There are 2 main kinds of storage in computers: Hard drive and solid state drives. Both do the same thing in that they store your data. However, SSDs are much faster than hard drives. They're flash-based storage so they can read/write data much faster than a hard drive, which has mechanical parts. However, SSDs are currently more expensive per gigabyte than hard drives (though prices are always falling).
The advantage a hard drive has is that they're pretty cheap and have high capacities (many terabytes). Most desktops have a hard drive. They're ok for average use, but I would highly recommend getting a system that has an SSD for the OS and a hard drive for general data storage. Things like movies, music, pictures, etc won't sound or look any better if they're on SSD, so it doesn't make much sense to store them on the SSD.

As far as security software goes, you don't have to buy any. Windows 10 computers come with Windows Defender. It isn't the best thing in the world, but it has improved a lot since it came out. I personally use ESET and it works pretty well and is lightweight.

I'm not sure how much you're wanting to spend, so I can't really give you any recommendations.

Quick story. Best would be to get a system with an i3 or similar CPU. Anything bigger is unnecessary for your needs. 4GB to 8GB RAM would be sufficient. 500GB to 1TB HDD is sufficient. Use an internet security suite from companies like Norton, Eset, Kaspersky etc. I use Norton on all my systems.

It would be better to get a laptop for practicality but that's my preference.

I am not an expert, however I will share my knowleadge and opinions. A desktop is cheaper, if you do not see the difference between them, take a desktop. I think you should analyse what you have to lose and based on it decide for a protective software or not.

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What kind of computer should I get?

I've been trying to shop for computers but my mind can't wrap around a lot of the specs of the computers I'm looking at.

I'm going to be using the computer for internet research for my podcast, Microsoft Office and not much more. I don't need anything so crazy as a quality gaming PC but I do want something moderately fast and possibly some protective software to go with it.

A: should I get a laptop or a desktop? I'm not sure of the differences other than portability and I'm not planning on moving it.

B: Should I invest in protective software? I'm going to heavily surf the internet, however I'm going to do my best to stick to trusted sites.